CBS News' "60 Minutes" correspondent and foreign reporter Bob Simon died on Wednesday night at the age of 73 from injuries sustained in a car accident, the network announced.
The veteran newsman was reportedly a passenger in a town car when it collided with a Mercedes-Benz stopped at a traffic light in Manhattan around 7 p.m., police told the Associated Press. The car Simon was riding in lost control after the collision, plowing into the median near 30th Street on the West Side Highway, the Daily News reported.
Both the driver and Simon had to be cut out of the cab, according to the New York Post. Simon was taken to Mount Sinai Roosevelt Hospital where he was pronounced dead, the New York Times reported. The 44-year-old driver of Simon's vehicle was also taken to the hospital with injuries that were non-life threatening.
Law enforcement sources told the New York Post that the driver of the town car was treated for a possible heart attack by EMTs. The 23-year-old driver of the other involved vehicle was not seriously injured, according to the Daily News.
The award-winning reporter's career spanned five decades, taking him to conflict scenes around the world. Simon joined CBS in 1967, and then "60 Minutes" in 1996.
Simon covered a wide range of topics, including the Vietnam War and the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan. His assignments often put him right in the middle of conflict, in one instance leading to his imprisonment for 40 days in an Iraqi jail while covering the Gulf War.
One of his most notable assignments, "Curveball," detailed the investigation of the Iraqi defector who provided the faulty testimony that eventually led America to war. Just three days before his death, his story "When Selma Meets Hollywood" was broadcasted. He won a total of 27 Emmys.
CBS broke programming on Wednesday night to announce the news of Simon's death, as did CNN.
"I dreamed of being, and still hope to be, a quarter of the writer that Bob Simon is and has been," Anderson Cooper said.
CBS released a statement following Simon's death:
"It's a terrible loss for all of us at CBS News," "60 Minutes" executive producer Jeff Fager said in a statement. "It is such a tragedy made worse because we lost him in a car accident, a man who has escaped more difficult situations than almost any journalist in modern times."
Simon was born on May 29, 1941, in the Bronx. He is survived by his wife, Françoise, and a daughter, Tanya, who is a producer for CBS News' "60 Minutes" in New York.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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